JCC threats reach LI; Vandals hit Philadelphia graves

Posted
Wednesday, March 1, 2017 12:47 pm

Combined Sources

The weeks-long wave of bomb threats targeting Jewish Community Centers in several states reached Long Island on Monday, with a threat being phoned in to the Mid-Island Y JCC in Plainview. As was the case with the other threats, including at least 21 on Monday alone, no meanacing objects were found at the center, which was briefly evacuated.

Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad of Mineola said the threats would not succeed in sowing fear, and in fact JCCs around the country reported that very few members were staying away.

“We will redouble our efforts in friendship and appreciation with all of our friends and neighbors of all walks of life, with all faith communities, to counter a world of darkness and evil with our acts of goodness and kindness,” Rabbi Perl said.

In five waves of calls in less than two months, 89 bomb threats were received by 72 Jewish institutions in 30 states and one Canadian province, according to the JCC Association of North America.

The threatening calls seek “to wear us down,” said Secure Community Network Director Paul Goldenberg. “But we are back in our schools, we are back in our JCCs.”

Meanwhile, more than 100 gravesites were disturbed in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, one week after over 150 headstones were overturned and damaged in St. Louis.